Electricity: Lagos community kicks over mass disconnection

Some electricity consumers in Baruwa community in Ipaja, Lagos, on Thursday faulted the disconnection of their power supply from the transformer by officials of Ikeja Electric.
Our reporter in separate interviews in Lagos that disconnecting the entire community from the grid, due to few consumers owing the company, was illegal.
Mr Kazeem Ibrahim, a resident of Olofintuyi Street, told our reporterthat on April 20, two of the three cables that supply power to their houses were dropped from the transformer.
“We reported this at the nearby office of Ikeja Electric in order to fix the problem because we were in darkness.
“But surprisingly, when they came four days later, instead of repairing the faulty transformer, they removed the entire cables that supply the area and shut us down.
“The company’s workers claimed that some consumers were owing the electricity firm, and if they refuse to pay their due, they will not restore the power supply.
“It is injustice; I pay my electricity bills regularly. This is not the way to do it.
“The company knows who pays and who does not pay his bill; they should go after them and not put the entire community in darkness”he said.

Mr Joseph Philip, another resident of Baruwa, said the seven-day outage had started taking its toll on the community, noting that economic activities in the entire area had been grounded.
“We are law abiding citizens of Nigeria, but Ikeja Electric is not treating us well.
“In 2017, our transformer at two-storey area developed fault for nine months.
“We were in darkness throughout those months, yet Ikeja Electric was bringing electricity bills without power supply.
“I have written them that I’m not paying for the energy, because there was no reason for the bills they were bringing without supply,” he said.
The Head, Corporate Communications, Ikeja Electric, Mr Felix Ofulue, said they would look into the matter and resolve all issues relating to power supply in the community.

Ofulue urged the residents not to vandalise the company’s equipment in their area due to the outage.